Writing Life: The Week I Became a Published Author

Playing with Fire, my debut novel, launched in July. And the learning curves were many:

• The English language has three different types of hyphens. Who knew?

• If you are selling in America, you should write in American English. Wish I'd known that before I told my proofreader to stick to British spellings.

• Book design has its own language and a lot of it is in Latin

• Nothing goes according to plan

• Panic can manifest as procrastination

• "When is the next book out" is a compliment and a hex

• Crapping your pants is actually awesome

In case you're wondering... No, I haven't quite lost my mind. Yet anyway. Although my neighbours probably think I'm schizophrenic, as I walk my dog talking to myself—plotting new scenes; and my daughter has famously quoted "your freak was never in the closet, mum." Don't ask your children for their opinion if you don't want the truth. It's a mistake.

Jokes aside, I spent launch day having a mental breakdown. What if the book isn't good? What if people don't like it? What if I can't pull this off? What if it doesn't even sell? Whose stupid idea was this—becoming an authorpreneur? Oh yeah, it was mine.

Then I realised that, no matter what happens, this was my dream. Something I wanted to do since I was twelve. And staring at it in book format with a pretty cover, margins that work, beautiful chapter headers, and a kick-ass copyright notice, means I've broken free from the mould and been bold.

If like me, you're doing something career crazy today... Take to heart Seneca's words—"there is no genius without a touch of madness." Then take a minute to savour the fact you actually did it. You faced your fear, you leaped. And you know what? Don't you feel alive?

Then my first review has come in. It's was four star. I now have 12 reviews at an average of 4.8 stars. Most of the readers saying they couldn't put the book down and read through the night. They also hate me because now they want book two and it's not out yet. *Insert happy dance here*.

Fancy a read?

Buy Playing with Fire